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Waking up is hard to do, but it's easier with NPR's Morning Edition, hosted locally by WNPR's Diane Orson.

NPR hosts Steve Inskeep, and David Greene bring the day's stories and news to radio listeners on the go. They interview newsmakers from politicians, to academics, to filmmakers, and present stories from NPR correspondents around the world and WNPR reporters here at home.

Morning Edition provides news in context, airs thoughtful ideas and commentary, and reviews important new music, books, and events in the arts. All with voices and sounds that invite listeners to experience the stories. Morning Edition is a world of ideas tailored to fit into your busy life.

The reigning king in the truck world is the Ford F-150, and it's been that way for a couple of decades. But staying on top is getting harder.

With new, tougher fuel standards looming there is a lot of emphasis on efficiency and innovation. On Wednesday, Ford is announcing its flagship truck is taking a step into the alternative fuel world with a vehicle that can run on natural gas.

When you look at their bottom lines and their advertising you realize that the Detroit Three make cars, but they're really truck companies, especially Ford.

A lot of what you'd see at the National Senior Games looks familiar if you've ever watched the Summer Olympics: There's track and field, basketball and swimming. At the Summer Olympics, however, you will not hear voices in the crowd cheering "Go, Grandma!"

Everyone at these games is over 50, and they play some sports that will likely never appear at the Olympics. Here's a sample:

I read the other day that 16,000 people have been recruited as volunteers for next year's Super Bowl in New Jersey, and suddenly it occurred to me: the Super Bowl is one of the great financial bonanzas of modern times. From the players to the networks to the hotels, everybody involved with it makes a killing. Why would anybody volunteer to work for free for the Super Bowl? Would you volunteer to work free for Netflix or Disneyworld?

Researchers at the University of South Florida are fighting with the state over access to the grounds of a now-closed reform school.

For decades, the Dozier School for Boys was notorious for the harsh treatment boys received there. Now, a forensic anthropologist and her team want permission to exhume dozens of bodies they found in unmarked graves, but are meeting resistance from state officials.

Northern California's Salinas Valley is often dubbed America's salad bowl. Large growers there have long relied on thousands of seasonal workers from rural Mexico to pick lettuce, spinach and celery from sunrise to sunset. Many of these workers seem destined for a life in the fields. But a program that helps field workers, like Raul Murillo, start their own farms and businesses is starting to yield a few success stories.

A year ago, Montana opened the nation's first clinic for free primary healthcare services to its state government employees. The Helena, Mont., clinic was pitched as a way to improve overall employee health, but the idea has faced its fair share of political opposition.

A year later, the state says the clinic is already saving money.

Pamela Weitz, a 61-year-old state library technician, was skeptical about the place at first.

In this age of cyber-crime and online espionage, here's a good old-fashioned story about cops and robbers: Smash & Grab, a new documentary film opening in New York on Wednesday, details the exploits of the "Pink Panthers" — a group of international jewel thieves that, for the past decade, has targeted high-end jewelry shops across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

According to the international police agency, Interpol, the Pink Panthers have stolen nearly a half a billion dollars worth of jewels over roughly 500 robberies.

Fewer than 10 percent of all mammal species are monogamous. In fact, biologists have long disagreed over why monogamy exists at all. That's the subject of two studies published this week — and they come to different conclusions.

Animals that leave the most offspring win the race to spread their genes and to perpetuate their lineage. So for most mammals, males have a simple strategy: Mate with as many females as possible.

"Monogamy is a problem," says Dieter Lukas, a biologist at Cambridge University. "Why should a male keep to one female?"

A new show on ABC Family follows a family with one biological kid, two adopted kids and a new addition, a teenage foster kid. Given how fostering is such an inherently dramatic situation, why hasn't this ever been the premise of a TV show before? (This story originally aired on All Things Considered on June 3, 2013.)

At the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus, plans for a major expansion are being hindered by a lack of water. So the university is looking at a few options for a new water supply, including drawing water from the Farmington River.

Joining us to talk about the proposals is Karl Wagener, executive director of the Council on Environmental Quality.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection refutes the notion that wild populations of mountain lions live in Connecticut. But as WNPR's Ray Hardman reports, a grass roots organization aims to prove DEEP wrong.

Being overweight is the biggest reason why teens are bullied at school. That's according to a survey of Connecticut adolescents. Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Published the report online in the Journal of School Health. Joining us by phone is the lead author of the report, and director of research at the Yale Rudd Center Rebecca Puhl.

The Silk City Flick Fest is underway in Hartford and runs through this weekend. This year's theme is Steampunk. Joining us by phone is filmmaker and founder of the Silk City Flick Fest Justin Michael Morales.

Occupy New Haven commences their protest this weekend on the New Haven green. They join over a hundred other cities across the U.S. that have modeled their protests after the Occupy Wall Street movement. Joining us by phone is Ben Aubin one of the organizers of Occupy New Haven and founder of the New Haven Free Store.

Like many other school districts, Hartford, Conn., rewards schools that perform well and closes schools that perform badly.

But Hartford is also a district that allows parents to choose their child's school. As the theory goes, parents should naturally choose the good schools over the bad ones — but as it turns out, they often don't.